The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to a vehicle seat protector and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a protector that protects the seat from liquid, especially water.
It is not uncommon for people who are soaking wet to enter a vehicle and sit down. There may be heavy rain, or people may have been swimming or surfing and may not have had time or the opportunity to dry before entering the vehicle.
In other cases, small children or the elderly and incontinent or drunk people may soil the seating in the vehicle. The latter is particularly a concern with police vehicles and taxis.
Vehicle seats may be made from a range of materials, including leather, plastics and textiles. Textile seats in particular can be affected by water and are hard to clean from soiling.
One common solution, widely used by garages when servicing and repairing cars, is simply to place a thin plastic sheet over the seats. This protects the seats from dust and dirt, but is not really intended for wet.
An alternative solution is disclosed in US Patent Application No. 2003/0085598A1 to Wesley Monday, filed Nov. 6, 2001, which discloses a disposable highly absorbent seat cover. The cover is intended for police officers to protect their police car seats from stains and odors caused by apprehended suspects riding in the police cars. The cover includes a highly absorbent material, such as a super absorbent polymer, so that urine and other substances are quickly absorbed into the cover instead of staining the vehicle seat and defiling the vehicle. The cover can also be conveniently attached and removed from the vehicle seat by means of hook and loop or other fasteners.
A problem with this approach is that the amount of absorbent material used, sufficient to cover the entire seat surface, makes the solution expensive.
DE102006057257A1 to Frank Renz and Wolfgang Schnirring, filed 22 Nov. 2006, discloses an incontinence cover for seats, e.g. for wheelchairs, furniture, child seats and for seats in vehicles, which has a moisture absorbing layer and is fitted via removable fastenings to enable soiled covers to be cleaned in a washing machine at temperatures of at least 30 deg. C. The cover is secured by stitches, adhesive, press tapes, sliding clasp fasteners, press studs, welding or by any suitable means.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,045,067 to Nancy E Long et al., filed 9 Sep. 2013 discloses a generic, easy-to-use, temporary, reusable, absorbent, moisture impermeable, home launderable, protective vehicle seat cover designed for any seat with a headrest. The cover is designed to work with any type of seat (bucket or bench seat), or location of seat (front or back seat), or type of vehicle (sedan, van, truck, bus, train). The seat cover is able to be used individually or can be linked together to cover contiguous seats. The cover installs and removes quickly over a headrest being secured by Velcro™. The construction uses multi-layer, elongated, rectangular materials, which loosely covers the front surfaces of the seat. The seat cover consists of two layers: an upper layer that absorbs wetness, dirt, odor, and other contaminants and wicks moisture away from the user; and a lower layer that blocks any liquids or other contaminants from reaching the vehicle's upholstery. The design easily enables repeated installation-removal-laundering cycles. The seat cover is economically designed for home laundering and environmentally designed for efficient washing and drying.
Additional background art includes WO201057258A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,984.